On this page
- At a glance
- Rankings: St Gallen at #1, Bocconi strong on both tables
- Cost: St Gallen’s tuition is extraordinary — but mind Swiss living costs
- Selectivity and cohort: a tiny elite class vs a larger international one
- Careers: consulting strength both ways, St Gallen’s salary on top, Bocconi’s luxury niche
- How to choose
The University of St. Gallen and Università Bocconi are both heavyweight European MiMs — but they make very different cases. St Gallen’s Master in Strategy and International Management (SIM) is the long-running FT #1, an elite micro-cohort with remarkable public-tuition value and a top salary; Bocconi’s MSc in International Management is a broader, more accessible top-tier school in Milan with a distinctive luxury and consulting strength. This guide compares the two on what actually decides it, using the data from the programmes we profile.
At a glance
| Università Bocconi | University of St. Gallen | |
|---|---|---|
| Programme | MSc in International Management | Master in Strategy & International Management (SIM) |
| City | Milan, Italy | St. Gallen, Switzerland |
| FT Masters in Management | #13 | #1 |
| QS Business Masters: Management | #10 | — |
| Tuition | €36,000 (2 years) | CHF 9,987 (full programme) |
| Length | ~24 months | ~18 months |
| Cohort size | ~280 | ~52 (very selective) |
| GMAT (typical) | 600–720 | 650–740 |
| FT-weighted salary | ~$115k | ~$140k |
| Known for | Luxury & fashion, consulting, finance | FT #1 brand, consulting pipeline (DACH) |
(Rankings are from the Financial Times Masters in Management 2025 and QS Business Masters: Management 2026 tables we hold on each profile — read positions as bands, not exact ranks (see how to read MiM rankings). St Gallen’s SIM is a strategy-focused MiM; we don’t show a QS Management figure where one isn’t held on the profile. Fees are the programme data we publish and move each cycle — confirm the current number on each school’s own page.)
Rankings: St Gallen at #1, Bocconi strong on both tables
St Gallen has spent years at or near the top of the FT Masters in Management ranking — around #1 — a remarkable, durable result. Bocconi is itself a clear top-tier school: around FT #13 and QS #10, one of the best-known names in continental Europe. So St Gallen has the FT-topping brand, while Bocconi is strong on both the FT and QS and carries enormous recognition in its own right (and in Italy and the luxury world especially). If the single #1 brand is your priority, St Gallen leads; if you want a broadly top-ranked school with wider access, Bocconi is compelling. See how the FT and QS are built in our rankings explainer, and the whole field on our composite rankings.
Cost: St Gallen’s tuition is extraordinary — but mind Swiss living costs
This is a striking contrast. St Gallen is a public university, so its SIM tuition is only about CHF 9,987 for the entire programme — astonishing value for an FT #1 degree. Bocconi is a private fee of around €36,000 over two years. On tuition alone, St Gallen wins easily. The catch: Switzerland is among the most expensive countries in the world to live in, while Milan, though not cheap, is more affordable — so once you add accommodation and living over the programme, the all-in gap narrows considerably. Both still sit well below the €50k+ private grandes écoles. Compare both against the field on the cheapest MiM in Europe shortlist and in how much a MiM costs.
Selectivity and cohort: a tiny elite class vs a larger international one
The cohort experience differs sharply. St Gallen’s SIM admits a very small class (on the order of 50 students) — fiercely selective, tight-knit and elite, with scarce places. Bocconi runs a substantially larger cohort (a few hundred), more accessible and more international on the ground, with a bigger immediate network. Neither is easy to enter, but if you’re weighing odds and the kind of class you want: St Gallen is a small, hard-to-enter, high-intensity cohort; Bocconi is a larger, broader, more global one. See how programme lengths and cohorts vary in how long is a MiM.
Careers: consulting strength both ways, St Gallen’s salary on top, Bocconi’s luxury niche
Both place strongly, with different flavours. St Gallen reports an FT-weighted salary around $140k and is a renowned consulting feeder, especially into the German-speaking (DACH) market. Bocconi reports around $115k, with strong consulting and finance placement and a distinctive pipeline into luxury, fashion and sport management that reflects Milan. Both feed the same top global recruiters; St Gallen’s edge on the headline number tracks its ranking and the Swiss/DACH market, while Bocconi’s strength is breadth plus its luxury/consumer niche. Verify the sector shares and named employers in each school’s latest employment report — see who recruits European MiM graduates and which industries hire MiM graduates.
How to choose
- Choose St Gallen if you want the FT-topping brand, a top headline salary, exceptional public-tuition value and an elite micro-cohort with a strong consulting pipeline — and you’re confident about a very competitive admission and comfortable with high Swiss living costs.
- Choose Bocconi if you want a top-tier school with broader access, a larger and more international cohort, Milan as a base, and a genuine edge in luxury, fashion and consumer careers alongside consulting and finance.
Either way you’re choosing between two excellent schools. For more head-to-heads, see St Gallen vs HEC, ESCP vs Bocconi and Bocconi vs IE; the country-level Italy vs France guide; and the best MiM in Italy shortlist. When you’re ready to turn a shortlist into applications, the admissions toolkit walks through positioning your profile.